Category Archives: baseball

Sports: Muddling Along for Some; Finishes Within the Blink of an Eye For Others

Posted on by
Reply

(Baseball)—Our two major league teams could do no better than .500 ball for the last ten games and for one of them, that was a big disappointment.

The Cardinals were played a three-game series against the worst team in baseball this year and managed to lose two out of three.  The White Sox, losers of 14 of the first 15 road games this year won the last two games of the series againt the Cardinals to drop St. Louis four games under break-even for the year.  They’re 15-19, last in their division. The game was the first of the year for Dylan Carlson. He went hitless in three at-bats.

The Royals bullpen gave up a tying run to the Rangers in the ninth inning Sunday and a winnig run in the tenth.  The Rangers now have won six series in a row against Kansas City in the last three years.

How much have the Royals improved since 2023?  The Royals are 20-15 through their first 35 games of 2024. Last year, after 35 games, they were   9-26 and did not reach twenty wins until their 73rd game.

(ROYALS vs. CARDS)—-Here is a quick look at the reason the Royals are five above .500 and the Cardinals are four below it:

The Royals have scored 161 runs. Their pitchers have given up 117.

The Cardinals have scored 118 runs. Their pitchers have given up 150. Last night, in their loss to the Mets, they went one for six with runners in scoring position and in their last few games they’ve gone 10 for 55 and are now a season worst five games below break even.

(FOOTBALL—BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks’ 22-8 win over th Houston Roughnecks has set up THE big game of the year in the UFL. Next Saturday the Battlehawks (5-1) square off against the undefeated Birmingham Stallions (6-0).

The ‘Hawks had only one good offensive quarter, the second, when Quarterback A. J. McCarron was 17 for 21 with a pair of touchdowns.

The game drew almost 33,000 fans.

Birmingham remained undefeated with a 39-32 win over the Memphis Showboats (1-5).

The game next weekend matches the top survivor of the XFL against the top survivor of the USFL before the two leagues merged.  It will be a stern test for St. Louis.  Birmingham went into last weekend’s game leading the league in total yards, rushing yards, yards per reception, total offense, all-purpose yards, first downs, field goals made, punt return yards, sacks, rushing touchdowns allowed, scoring allowed and first downs allowed.

Now the fast stuff:

(DERBY)—Normally we don’t pay much attention to racing that only goes one lap, but this year’s Kentucky Derby was exceptional so we’re making an exception.

We know that Mystik Dan won the Derby by a nose or noses in 2:03.34.  The Derby says Sierra Leone finished second by a nose and Forever Young by a nose, however many tenths of a second a nose is.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR doesn’t do noses.  Kyle Larson inched past Chris Buscher by one one-thousandth of a second to win the weekend race at Kansas Speedway, the closest race finish in NASCAR’s 75-year history).   Buescher took the lead on the start of the overtime period but gave Larson just enough space to pull even with him on the outside of the last turn and beat him to the line in a photo finish.

The top four cars (17 Buescher; 5 Larson; 9 Chase Elliott; 19 Truex, just outside the picture) finished within 0.0075 seconds.  (By contrast, the average eye blink is a full tenth of a second so they really did have four cars finish the race in the blink of an eye, or less!)

It’s Larson’s second win of the year as he enters a month that will end with him racing 1100 miles on Memorial Day Sunday.

(FORMULA 1)—Lando Norris is the talk of Formula 1 this week after winning the Grand Prix of Miami by almost eight seconds over the usually-dominant Max Verstappen.  Norris was driving a McLaren with the latest chassis upgrades and kept Verstappen at bay in the latter stages of the race.

Verstappen struggled for speed all weekend.

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar begins its “month of May” (an anachronistic phrase for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s preparations for the Indianapolis 500)  next weekend with a race on the Speedway’s road course.

In the old days, the Speedway would be open for practice for the first couple of weeks of May, with qualifications for the race spread through two more weekends and the race on Memorial Day itself. Now, such preparations are less necessary and the road race will be next weekend with practice for a week and qualifications on the 19th, final preparation runs on the 24th and the race on the 26th. A crowd of more than 300,000 is anticipated—that’s about one out of every one-thousand people in this country.

(Photo credits: NBC News; NASCAR)

 

 

Getting their Chances: Getting a Big Win; Two So-So Weeks in Baseball; and the Fast Stuff 

Posted on by
Reply

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—The NFL was paying attention to the Missouri Tigers in 2023, evidenced by the dozen players either drafted or signed as undrafted free agents.

Six players were drafted, the most since 2009 and only one short of the record set in 1981.

Defensive Lineman Darius Robinson was a first-rounder, the 27th pick, by Arizona; Cornerback Ennis Rakestraw was a second rounder, picked by Detroit; Linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper went to Green Bay in the third round and Javon foster was Jacksonville’s pick in the fourth round.  Jaylon Carlisle (Colds), and Kris Abrams Draine (Denver) were fifth round picks.

Corey Schrader was quickly picked up by the 49ers as an undrafted free agent.  The Carolina Panthers will give kicker Harrison Mevis a look. The Jets are interested in offensive lineman Marcellus Johnson while the Buccaneers have signed Xavier Delgado, another offensive lineman. And running back Nate Pete has signed with the Dallas Cowboys. The Detroit Lions have invited defensive lineman Josh Landry to their rookie mini-camp.

Four guys are hoping somebody will call: Defensive lineman Realus George jr., defensive end Nyles Gaddy, Linebacker Chad Bailey, and linebacker Ben Straatmann. (ZOU)

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks made the fourth quarter a nightmare for the DC Defenders during the weekend, handing the Defenders their first home lost in their four seaons in the XFL and, now, the UFL.

The ‘Hawks led only 17-12 at the half but capitalized on the Defenders’ two fourth-down failures, a blocked punt, an interception, and a fumble to bury DC 45-12, the most lopsided victory in Battlehawks history.

The ‘Hawks blew the game open with about nine minutes left when Quarterback A. J. McCarron hit Hakeem Butler for an 80-yard touchdown pass.  It’s the longest play in the UFL this year and the longest scoring play in the Battlehawks’ history.

(BASEBALL)—Our two MLB teams had 4-6 weeks, the Royals losing three in a row.  The Cardinals missed a chance to reach .500 with a 12th-inning loss on Sunday to the Mets. Former Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader drove in the tying run and scored the winner in a 4-2 Mets victory.

The Royals have moved to Detroit for a midweek series. They’re still four games above .500.

Need Speed?

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar got the race it needed at Barber Motorsports Park last weekend after a tough week that saw three drivers for the sport’s leading team penalized for having the push-to-pass mechanism in the year’s first race.

Josef Newgarden’s season-opening win at St. Petersburg was taken away as was the third-place finish by teammate Scott McLaughlin. Their third teammate, Will Power, was fined but he was not disqualified. Pato O’Ward has been given the St. Petersburg victory.

Newgarden and McLaughlin used the push-to-pass button, which should have been disabled, during the race.  The button increases engine power for a few seconds in passing situations. It had been used in recent testing and was supposed to have been removed for the race.

Both drivers said they did not realize they were not supposed to have that capability.

The fact that the problems occurred with Team Penske only increased the embarrassment throughout the sport and cast a shadow over IndyCar in the days leading to last weekend’s race. Team owner Roger Penske also owns IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His teams for decades have been known for their strict professional discipline and ultra-high race organization and preparation. The situation revealed a crack in that perfection and several competitors were quick to react.

Newgarden and McLaughlin said they were not aware they could not use the P2P button. Newly-crowned St. Petersburg winner Pato O’Ward appreciated Newgarden taking one for the team but “I truly feel like him taking the fall for something that he needs a team of people to help with…I think it’s a bit unfair to him.”

But Colton Herta, who drives for Andretti Global and who finished third in the revised standings from the St. Petersburg race, was less forgiving. He flatly called Newgarden’s comments “a lie.”

Newgarden, whom some might regard as a physical embodiment of the Penske image, was emotional when he met with reporters before the race last weekend. He struggled with his composure as he denied being “a liar,” and apologized for the incidents. “I’ve worked my entire career to hold myself to a very high standard and clearly I’ve fallen very short of that in this respect. It’s a difficult thing to wrestle with…It’s crushing…I don’t ant that win on my books, either. If it was tainted, I don’t want to be near it. Unfortunately, it is.”

“You can call me every name in the book; you can call me incompetent, call me an idiot…call me stupid…but I’m not a liar,” he said.

Newgarden went out afterward and topped the Friday practice speeds but could not match those numbers in qualifying. He started eighth and finished sixteenth in the race.

The closely-contested race that featured a lot of close, sometimes too-close, competition went to McLaughlin, with Power chasing him at the end.  McLaughlin led 58 of the 90 laps on the 2.3-mile road course and cranked out the hottest lap of the day at more than 122 mph.

Herta, who finished eighth, retained the series points lead by one over Power.

IndyCar moves to Indianapolis now for the leadup to the Indianapolis 500, starting with a race on the infield road course on May 11.

0-0-0

McLaren driver David Malukas is now a FORMER McLaren driver. He’s been released because his wrist injuries from a pre-season mountain biking incident still has not healed sufficiently to allow him to drive.

Malukas signed a contract last September hurt himself in February.

McLaren has used substitute drivers for the first four races but says it needs someone in the seat permanently.

0-0-0

Longtime IndyCar driver and official Wally Dallenbch has died at age 87.  He stated in 13 Indianapolis 500s. His best finishes were a air of fourths in 1976-77. After hanging up hishelmet, he served as competition director and chief steward for about 25 years of CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) after its split from IndyCar.

(NASCAR)—Win number three for Denny Hamlin this year, this one coming at Dover.  He beat series points leader Kyle Larson by .256 second. Hamlin’ win, his 54th, ties him with the legendary Lee Petty.

0-0-0-0

Newly-retired Kevin Harvick will be back in a seat next month for NASCAR’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.  He’ll qualify Kyle Larson’s car whle Larson is in Indianapolis qualifying for the 500.  Larson plans to “do the double” on Memorial Day Sunday—run the 500 and then jet to Charlotte for the 600 mile race there that night.

(FORMULA1)—Formula One had the weekend off. Next up: The Grand Prix of Miami next Sunday.

The Jontay Thing

Posted on by
Reply

Just as Monday’s entry was being written came news of the tragedy of Jontay Porter, the Columbia kid, ex-MU Tiger, fringe NBA player who is the first person permanently banned from the NBA since Jack Molinas was banned 71 years ago for betting on games he played with the Fort Wayne (now Detroit) Pistons.

The Porter case is of special interest not only because of his Missouri roots but also because Missourians might be deciding whether sports betting should be legalized in our state—and what that might mean to the confidence we have in our big-time sports teams and their games.

Alex Kirschner, writing for Slate.com says Porter “did things worse than anything Pete Rose ever got up to.”

Jeff Zilgitt of USA TODAY was equally unforgiving when he wrote, “In all of Jontay Porter’s idiocy, he provided a service to other professional athletes who might consider placing bets on games in which they are direct participants or in which they have insider knowledge to provide to gamblers. It’s almost impossible to pull it off in a world of legal, regulated and monitored gambling. It’s even more impossible when you’re as blatant as the NBA says Porter was.”

Kirschner  notes that sports leagues “make a lot of money off of people betting on their games…It’s a cash grab, yes.  But from the leagues’ perspective, it’s also a payment in exchange for tolerating certain risks. Sports leagues profit from betting but they are also terrified of it.” 

 Porter, he says, committed two sins and flirted with a third.  He disclosed privileged information to bettors and manipulated in-game outcomes. In Porter’s case, he took himself out of a game early so he would not meet projected performance levels.  The third circumstance that terrifies leagues, says Kirschner is outright throwing of games. “The single easiest way to threaten a league’s multibillion-dollar business is for people to doubt that they’re watching a game left to chance…If that goes, everything could go.

Porter is only 24 years old. Kirschner says his career is in the dumpster because he has been involved in the biggest betting scandal involving a player since sports wagering was legalized in this country in 2018. “If the Black Sox were a 10 on the scandal scale,” he writes, “Porter probably is a 6 or 7.”

Zilgitt darkly predicts this will happen again. “Someone always thinks they can beat the system, and maybe someone can but not Jontay Porter and his simple attempt at trying to make extra money. It’s inevitable, just as it was inevitable it happened in the first place.” Porter, who has spent most of his pro career in the NBA’s minor league, was being paid $410,000 this year to play for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors. The league investigation says he made $22,000 on the bets he placed on the game from which he removed himself, claiming illness.

The “idiocy” that Ziglitt attributes to Porter is explained by Kirschner who writes that the kid used the gambling companies that partner with the pro leagues to place his bets—-and those bets are monitored by the leagues. “If Porter were collaborating with underground bettors and bookies, his activity would have gone undetected,” he wrote.

In Kirschner’s view, pro sports teams are just asking for this kind of problem.  Sports wagering companies are aggressively advertising their “services,” leading to greatly expanding participation in betting. He bluntly observes, “A bigger pool of bettors means a bigger pool of potential crooks. In a subtle but real way, the NBA courted the Porter scandal.”

Pro sports leagues fought against sports wagering until the U. S. Supreme Court legalized it nationwide in 2018.  Once it was legalized, the leagues had no choice but to get in bed with the betting industry.  Pessimists might be forgiven for wondering if they’ll stay on their separate sides of the bed.

And whose reputation is damaged by this scandal?  Not the gaming industry.  It’s sports and those who play them.  A player has been banished for life. Pro sports worries whether its fans think its product is genuine and honest.

Zilgitt quotes NBA Commissioner Adam Silver saying the Porter case “raises important questions about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players.” Zilgitt notes Silver has advocated federal regulation of sports wagering and suggests outlawing or limiting certain kinds of bets.

Not considered by either columnist is what role state regulatory agencies can play or should play in terms of disciplinary actions against casinos that handle such bets or wagering companies that process them. In this case, the hammer has fallen on the player, deservedly so, but those who took, paid, and processed his bets appear to be facing no penalties.

Missouri’s pro sports teams are gathering signatures to get a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment legalizing sports wagering.

The proposal mirrors bills introduced in this year’s legislative session that grievously disadvantage the state and the programs that rely on gambling income for their budgets.  The Missouri Gaming Commission has warned that the legislation pushed at the Capitol by gaming interests does not raise enough revenue for the commission to adequately regulate sports wagering. Nor does it do anything to punish the betting industry that produced the measley $22,000 that Porter won.

“Measley,” as in how little he gained compared to how much he has thrown away.

The Porter scandal is a tragedy for him and for sports in general.  How will Missouri voters see the issue now that one of our own has become a self-induced victim of a system we are being asked to approve?  He might be the first but nobody expects he will be the last.

If Missourians approve the proposition, will they also undermine trust in the games that they love?  How many Porters are needed before we wonder about every missed free throw, every error, every missed tackle, every overthrown pass, every wide shot on goal?

(If you want to read the full articles on which we’ve based two entries):

Jontay Porter NBA betting scheme is a lesson in stupidity (usatoday.com)

Athletes beware: Jontay Porter NBA betting scheme is a lesson in stupidity (msn.com)

Sports: Norm’s In; Going Opposite Directions; New AD on the Horizon? And a Few More

Posted on by
Reply

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(NORM)—Former Missouri Tiger basketball coach Norm Stewart finally is getting his place in the Hall of Famous Missourians at the State Capitol.  The bust will be unveiled at 1 p.m., May 1 in the House Chamber. It later will be moved to the rotunda, joining more than three dozen other busts of famous Missourians.

Stewart turned 89 in January.

His teams rang up a record of 731-375 in 38 seasons as a head coach, 634 of them at his alma mater.

(BASEBALL)—One of our teams finished last week at 13-9.  The other one finished at 9-13, with some folks remembering last year when the team started 10-24.

(KANSAS CITY)—The 13-9 record isn’t the only statistic that shows how much the Royals’ season is a turnaround from last year. Here’s another one:

The Royals were held without a run by Baltimore on Sunday, their first shutout of the year. Last year they failed to score fifteen times.  Seth Lugo took his first loss and gave up his first home runs of the year after winning three straight to start his season and not giving up a homer in 41.1 innings.

Kansas City is led this year by catcher/first-baseman Salvador Perez, who starts this week hitting .333 with six homers and Bobby Witt, Jr., at .300. The pitching is among the best in baseball with a 3.18 ERA, which normally would be an outstanding year for an individual, let alone a team.  The pitching continues to carry the team, which is batting a cumulative .237, Perez and Witt notwithstanding.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals on theother hand are 9-13.   Wilson Contrares has the longest hitting streak in Major League Baseball, 14 games, at the end of the playing week.  Shortstop Masyn Win and Contreras are above .300 at the plate but the ‘Birds as a team are hitting only .219. But with an offense like that, the pitching staff’s 3.95 ERA, solid thought it be in today’s game, isn’t good enough.

The Optimist Award for 2024 goes to Sonny Gray, the pitching ace who says the Cardinals are going to turn things around big-time soon. Gray is doing his part, going 2-0 without an ERA and an 11-0 strikeout to walk ratio in his first two starts. Sunday, a dozen of the 19 outs he got were strikeouts. He did give up his first walk of the year and his first home run and that was enough for the Brewers in a 2-0 shutout.

(FOOTBALL)—As we were going to press (as they used to say in the journalism biz), reports were coming out that the new Athletic Director at the University was going to be Laird Veatch, the AD at Memphis for the last five years.

It’s a return for Veatch, who supervised fund raising for the athletic deaatment, 2000=2002. He later was the general manager of Mizzou Sports Properties in 2003, coordinating external media operators for Learfield Sports, which has multimedia rights with Tiger sports teams.  His first big job, other than lining up all of the NIL deals, will be raise half of the money for the $250 million dollar make over of the north end of Memorial Stadium.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—A big offensive day for the St. Louis Battlehawks coupled with a solid offensive day gave them a 32-17 win over the Memphis Showboats and a 3-1 record. St. Louis again led the UFL in attendance with 31,575 people in the Dome.

‘Hawks quarterback A. J. McCarron threw the ball an all-time high of 45 times, completed 35 of them for 222 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Jacob Saylors rushed for 103 yards. The defense gave up only 127 yards and let Memphis convert only one of ten third and fourth down attempts.

(Playing with Engines)

(INDYCAR)—Nobody INDYCAR “makes fuel” as Scott Dixon does.  He proved it again with his win at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Dixon went about 50 of the race’s 85 laps without refueling and had to hold off Josef Newgarden, who was closing the gap with ten laps left before   Newgarden was hit from behind by Colton Herta’s car.Herta went on to finish second, about one second behind Dixon.

The win extends Dixon’s record of having at leat one victory to twenty consecutive years.

(NASCAR)—The “big one” didn’t happen until the field was roaring toward the checkered flag at Talladega Superspeedway. With cars crashing ahead of him, and more crashing behind him, Tyler Reddick kept his foot on the floor and steered out of harms way to the win.

The crash was triggered when pole sitter Michael McDowell tried to block Brad Keselowski but touched Keselowski’s car at 200 mph and turned into the wall.  Reddick let the wrecking cars move out of his way while he slipped Keselowski for the win.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen adds the trophy for the Chinese Grand Prix to his shelf, posting a 13 second victory over runnerup Lando Norris.

(Photo Credit: Bob Priddy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Stadium Thing

Posted on by
1

Here’s a sand-in-the-underwear situation for you.

Owners of our big-time sports teams—the Royals, the Chiefs, the Blues and the Cardinals (and our two pro soccer teams)—want you and me to reach into our pockets to pay major parts of the costs of building new stadia or upgrading old ones for them.

The Royals and the Chiefs overlooked a critical issue as their effort to extend the Jackson County sports tax was trounced by voters recently. The Cardinals are overlooking the same issue with reports that they will be seeking state support for the updating of Busch Stadium III (although team president Bill DeWitt III says such a report is “premature.” :

None of them has mentioned how many millions of dollars they will make from sports wagering. None of them has given any indication that they could use that money instead of taxpayer funds for their new projects.

It is a failing that might not bode well for the teams and the casinos that want to put a sports wagering proposition on the ballot later this year, a proposal that hugely disadvantages the state and the programs that years ago the casinos promised could be funded with taxes and fees from legalized gambling.

Would it not make sense to ease voter worries about city and state subsidies for stadium construction and improvements if the teams committed to using the first few years of the giant profits they expect from sports betting for their stadium projects instead of expecting a tax handout from the citizens?  

 Why should the legislature give any team that will profit from sports betting any funds from state taxpayer pockets?  Why should the legislature lessen financial support for, say, mental health services, veterans homes, education, senior services programs, and nursing home support so sports teams that soon will be divvying up hundreds of millions of dollars a year from people thinking they can consistently beat game-day odds don’t have to use those funds?

Opponents of sports wagering might be able to make a lot of hay out of this oversight by the teams and the casinos.  It’s an election year. If you are a voter, you should ask your candidates if they favor taking money away from state programs to build or maintain playing fields while the team owners and the casinos rake hundreds of millions of dollars in lost consumer bets into their pockets instead of investing them in stadium projects in their home cities?

You should ask those questions.  And if your candidate says the sports teams should be allowed to pick your pocket with a tax while lining their pockets with gambling revenues, you should look for another square on the ballot to fill in.

These two issues are joined at the hip and voters, especially those in the home areas of our major league teams, should hold their legislators and their sports teams accountable.

 

Sports: A Soccer Record; Blues Play Out the String; Battlehawks in the Fight; Daniel in the Booth?; and a Little Baseball and a Little Racing.

Posted on by
Reply

by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(SOCCER)—-It’s “football” everywhere but here where it’s “soccer.”  But an American-football-sized crowd packed Arrowhead Stadium last weeend to watch a soccer game.

The crowd of 72,610 is the largest soccer crowd in Missouri history and the third-biggest crowd for a stand alone match in Major League Soccer history.

Unfortunately, the match, on the 28th anniversary of the first MLS soccer match at Arrowhead Stadium, ended poorly for Sporting Kansas City. Inter Miami beat SKC 3-2.

Soccer fans are likely to see some comparable crowds in a couple of years when Arrowhead plays host to four group stage games during the FIFA World Cup competition. It also will host a round of 32 matchup and a quarterfinal match.

(SPEAKING OF “FOOTBALL”)—Chiefs coach Andy Reid has emphasized he’s in a “wait and see “ mode when it comes to wide receiver Rashee Rice, who is in a heap of trouble in Dallas after he crashed his Lamborghini in a 120-mph freeway race with another guy. The other guy was Teddy Knox, a football player now suspended from the SMU team. Both left the scene before seeing if anyone was hurt in four other cars that got caught in the crash. Rice faces eight charges.

Reid says the Chiefs are waiting for “the law enforcement part of it to take place.”  He has talked to Rice but won’t say what was said.

The Chiefs are starting their voluntary offseason program but Rice will there only by Zoom.

Will Rice take part during in-person drills? Reid sayd the team is “just going to take it day-by-day here as we go.”

On Rice’s future involvement: “We’ll just see how it goes. I want to keep gathering the information from law enforcement people…”

Does the organization trust Rice’s decision making? “As long as he’s learning from it, that’s the important part of it. We’ll take it from there and see what takes place.”

(A FORMER CHIEF)—Chase Daniel, former Missouri Tiger Quarterback who had a 12-year NFL career in backup roles with several teams, including the Chiefs and the Saints, who won Super Bowls with him on the sidelines, is one of 24 people who took part in the NFL’s annual Broadcasting and Media Workshop, a three-day bootcamp for aspiring NFL broadcasters, last week.  He has been hosting a YouTube shw in which he analyzes NFL plays and players. Participants were given a chance to “call” a game on radio or television and to do a simulated in-studio analysis.

Before we move away from football:

(KA-KAW)—-That is the sound of a Battlehawk, or at least the sound a St. Louis Battlehawk fan makes during a UFL game, especially if the ‘Hawks’ take a lead or get a win, which they did last weekend against the San Antonio Brahmas, in San Antonio.

The Battlehawks are 2-1, one of four teams with that record in the eight-team spring football league. The Birmingham Stallions are the only undefeated team.

‘Hawks running back Jcob Saylors, ran for 62 yards and a TD. Hakeem Butler had a half-dozen catches for 87 yards and a TD. Quarterback A. J. McCarron was 19 for 27, throwing to eight targets.  He ran for one of the touchdowns in the 31-24 win.

The Battlehawks had fewer total yards, fewer first downs, and were far behind in possession time but they made up for those shortcomings with efficiency: converting five of nine third downs and and their only fourth-down attempt. And placekicker Andre Szmyt was good on field goals of 44, 43, and 46 yards.

(BASEBALL)—A look at stats for the first two weeks might tell us a little big why the Kansas City Royals are off to one of their best starts ever and why the St. Louis Cardinals are kind of wandering.

The Royals ended the week Sunday night with a 10-6 record, a half game behind Cleveland in their division. They’re getting solid pitching with a staff ERA of 3.04 and a team batting average of .250.

The Cardinals are struggling to get their offense going at the same time they’re pitching is going.  The staff ERA is 3.,92. But the team batting average is only .230.  Paul Goldschmidt, who struggled all spring, still struggles at the plate: .193, one homer, seven RBIs.  Rookies or near-rookies Victor Scott (.098) and sophomore outfielder Jordan Walker (.178) aren’t much help.  Together they are 25 for 153.  The Redbirds are last, again, in their division, 7-9 but already four games behind the Brewers.

(INJURIES)—A key player for the Kansas City Royals, catcher/first baseman Salvador Perez is out indefinitely with a groin and hip injury suffered in Sunday’s game against the Mets. The team says he’s day-to-day. He was held out of last night’s game against the White Sox.

The Cardinals say Tommy Edmund and Dylan Carlson have resumed “baseball activities.”

(HOCKEY)—The St. Louis Blues played their last home game of the year last weekend. They’ll put away the skates and the pucks for the 2-23-24 season after their finale Wednesday night against Dallas. A late-season comeback ended up seven points short of Las Vegas for the last wildcard slot.  A winning season at 43-33-5, pending the outcome Wednesday night but short for the second straight year.

(AROUND AND AROUND: RACING—Chase Elliott ended his 42-race winless NASCAR streak during the weekend, coming from a 24th-place start and outrunning the field for eight extra laps, two overtime sessions because of late-race cautions.  Brad Keselowski, who started 22nd, was right behind Elliott with William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Daniel Suarez rounding out the top five.

INDYCAR resumes its points chase next weekend in downtown Long Beach, then goes to the Indianapolis road course two weeks later to kick off the Month of May activities leading up to the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500.

FORMULA ONE will see if it continues to be Max Verstappen’s playground next weekend with the Grand Prix of China in Shanghai.

Sports A Tipping Point for Women’s Basketball; A Pro Football Attendance Record 

Posted on by
Reply

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Normally we would be talking baseball and wrapping up the hockey season at this time of year. But we start with a national championship and a football attendance record that should attract the attention of the National Football League.

(WOMEN’S BASKETBALL)—-The ferocity of play in women’s basketball, led by the record-setting play of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, and the record television audiences for the last three games of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, has created a whole new audience for the sport.

Why?  Because it’s more fun to watch.  And because it’s more than three-point shots and showboat dunks.

We have a national champion women’s team here in Missouri.

Easily overlooked because of the NCAA tournament has been the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.  And St. Louis University has become part of that magical season.

Coach Rebecca Tillett has led her Billikens to the WNIT championship with a 69-50 drubbing of Minnesota in the season finale.  The team showed toughness by winning its first five tournament games (four on the road) by a total of 21 points before polishing off Minnesota by 19. The margin had reached 25 before Tillett started running in her subs. The Billikens hit eleven three-pointers and were led by Kayla McMakin with 20 and Peyton Kennedy with 19. Kennedy was the tournament’s MVP.  The defense held Minnesota to a 3-23 performance beyond the arc

St. Louis University finished with a 22-18 record after splitting 18 Atlantic Conference games. But in the conference post season tournament, they upset nationally 10th- ranked George Washington, number two VCU, and number six Rhode Island.

Minnesota finished 20-16.

The championship marked the conclusion of a remarkable turnaround for the Billikens. They were 11-17 on February 21 after losing to Fordham. Their 11-1 run after that brought them the first WNIT championship in school history and the first in Atlantic 10 history.

This was Tillett’s second season at SLU. Last year, her team went into the post season with a 7-16 record before winning the A10 postseason tournament and getting an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament where they lost to Tennessee.

Tillett says this year has been a “tipping point” for women’s basketball. “It’s always been great. But now everybody knows it’s great. Everybody can see it. You are seeing fans become enamored with the way women play and compete.”  She says she’s “grateful” that her Billikens are part of that history.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—Fans of the St. Louis Battlehawks of the  United Football League continue to make a great case for the NFL to consider St. Louis as a place for an expansion team or a team looking for a new home.

More than 40,000 fans watched Battlehawks kicker Andre Szmyt hit a 22-yard field goal as the clock ran out to give the ‘Hawks a 27-24 win over Arlington.  The attendance in St. Louis almost equalled the total attendance of all four of the UFL’s season openers—almost 46,000. The crowd also set a record for professional spring football.

Running back Mataeo Durant set up the winning kick with a 41-yard bolt that gave him 104 rushing yards for the day.  Quarterback A. J. McCarron was 19 for 29 passing, 248 yards as the Battlehawks evened their record at 1-1.  The league has a ten-game schedule.

(BASEBALL—ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals’ rebound from last year’s forgettable season has produced the team’s first four-game sweep since 2021.  M. J. Melendez’s two-run homer in the seventh inning Sunday keyed a rally that led the Royals to a 5-3 win over the White Sox.  The White Sox are 1-8 so far this year, tied for the second-worset season start in team history.  The Royals are now 6-4 and open a series at home against Houston tonight.

(BASEBALL—CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals have split ten games so far this year. The pitchers’ 4.66 ERA ranks the staff 22nd among all pitching staffs in the league. That might explain why they’re 5-5 heading into tonight’s game against the Phillies in Philadelphia.

Sonny Gray finally will get his first regular-season start for the Cardinals tonight against the Phillies.

The Cardinals became the first team beaten by the Miami Marlins Sunday.  The Marlins savaged the Cardinals with two three-run homer in the first inning to get their first win of the season after a record nine straight season-opening losses.

—-Now, about the folks who have roaring good times:

(NASCAR)—William Byron picked up his third win in eight races this year, leading Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott to the first 1-2-3 finish in HMS history. The win was the 29th for HMS at Martinsville, a record for most wins at a single NASCAR venue ever and it adds to the distinguished start of Hendrick’s fortieth season in NASCAR’s Cup series.

Hendrick wasn’t at the race to enjoy the celebration. He had had a knee replaced earlier in the week. Larson’s second-place finish was enough for him to pass Martin Truex Jr., for the regular season points lead.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR runs its second points race of the year next weekend on the streets of Long Beach.

(FORMULA 1)—Back to things as usual for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, as he ran off with a win at the GP of Japan.  He joins Michael Schumacher as the only drivers to win the Japanese Grand Prix three times in a row. He has won 22 of the last 26 Grand Prix races and is shooting for his fourth straight Formula 1 championship.

 

 

Sports: A Big Vote; A Crash; Two Wins; A Closing Rush

Posted on by
Reply

by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(STADIA)—It’s election day in Kansas City and the future of the Royals and the Chiefs might be determined.  The election is on the continuation of a special sales tax used to build, renovate, or keep up the places the Royals and the Chiefs play.

Baseball season has finally OFFICIALLY begun.

—but not well for our major league teams.  Both could snag only one win in their first weekend series.

(KANSAS CITY—The Royals had three solid starts against the Twins had no offense in the first game and a blown save in the second game. But the third game was a Royals offensive display.

Starters gave  up just two runs in 19 innings in the series.

Cole Ragans set a Royals record on opening day with nine strikeouts in six innings. He gave up two runs and that was one more than the Royals scored.  Ragans, who was impressive after a midseason trade last year, broke the opening day strikeout record set by Wally Bunker in 1970 and tied by Danny Duffy eight years ago. But the Twins won 4-1.

The Royals wasted a good start by offseason acquisition Seth Lugo in their second game. He and Twins starter Joe Ryan hooked up in a pitchers duel through six innings.  Lugo struck out four, walked one and allowed just two hits.  Ryan retired the first ten Royals he faced before giving up a double to Bobby Witt Jr., in the sixth. Reliever Steven Okert gave up a single to M. J. Melendez to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. But the Twins tied the game in the eighty and got four more in the ninth to win it 5-1.

Brady Singer gave the Royals their third quality start Sunday with seven shutout innings and ten strikeouts, giving up just one walk, and three hits. Salvador Perez’s three-run homer in the first inning was all he needed but the Royals pile on eight more runs, four of them coming on additional homers, to rack up an 11-0 win, their first victory of 2024.  It was the first five-homer game at home since July 22, 2017. It was the 25th game in club history to feature five home runs.

Michael Wacha’s first start for the Royals was a no-decision in which he lasted five innings and gave up only three hits. Unfortunately they all came in the fourth inning and resulted in three Baltimore runs that tied the game.  The Orioles won 6-4 last night on a two-run walk-off homer by Jordan Westburg, his first career walk-off hit. Bobby Witt Jr., and Salvador Perez both homered for the second straight game.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals also avoided a sweep in their season-opening series against the Dodgers but could have won twice with better bullpen performance in the final game of the series.  They had the Dodges down 4-1. But in the eighth, pinch-hitter Max Muncey homered with a man on to give the Dodgers the 5-4 lead that they protected in the ninth.

Center fielder Victor Scott II showed flashes of his potential in the series. He’s on the roster because of injuries to some of the Cardinals’ outfielders.  In the finale of the series Sunday, he was on base three times and scored twice. Starting pitcher Steve Matz gave up only five hits in in five and two-thirds innings, to go with two runs.

The Cardinals won the middle game of the three game set with Paul Goldschmidt’s ground out in the tenth inning bring home the winner in a 6-5 game. The Redbirds had taken a 5-3 lead by scoring all of their runs in the seventh thanks to some Dodger mishaps—a hit batter, a balk, and a catcher’s interference.  Lance Lynn was good for four innings in his first outing for the Cardinals in seven years. He did not return after a 35-minute rain delay.

The Cardinals opened a series last night against their former manager, Mike Schildt, in San Diego. Kyle Gibson shut down the Padres on four hits through seven innings while the Cardinals feasted on five Padres pitchers for 14 hits in a 6-2 win. Wilson Contreras and Brendan Donovan had their first homers of the season.

Cardinals officials say Lars Nootbar could be back in a few days. In a simulated game during the weekend, he batted four times and got in five innings of work. He’ll probably get some playing time at Memphis in midweek before coming off the IL Thursday.

Pitcher Sonny Gray reportedly will come off the IL in about a week.

(FOOTBALL)—The UFL season has opened in a stunning way for the St. Louis Battehawks, who lost to the Michigan Panthers on a last-second 64-yard field goal by someone who hasn’t kicked a field goal since high schools.

The Battlehawks had a comeback 16-15 lead when Michigan’s Jake Bates got a kick-three with three seconds left.  The Battlehawks had scored two touchdowns in the last quarter to take the lead.

The kick by Jake Bates caused some NFL eyes to pop open. The Detroit News has reported some NFL teams already have contacted him. He can’t sign with anybody until the UFL season ends June 2.

(ATTENDANCE)—The UFL drew far fewer people to its four opening weekend games than watch NFL games.  The Battlehawks-Panthers game drew 9,444 grandstand people. The other games ran the total to 45,918, a number likely to be bigger next weekend when the Battlehawks play at home. Last year St Louis led its league in attendance.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs have signed a new backup quarterback—Carson Wentz, who gets a one-year deal to replace former Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert who has entered free agency after going 18 for 35 in passing with no touchdowns and three interceptions but getting his second Super Bowl ring. He got his first one as Tom Brady’s backup at Tampa Bay.

Wentz was Matthew Stafford’s number two guy with the Rams last year. He has a Super Bowl ring from his time with the Eagles.

0-0-0-0-0

Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice has lawyered up after a six-car crash in Dallas during a freeway race between a Corvette and a Lamborghini.  Nobody was seriously hurt but it appears Rice and the other driver ran from the scene without learning if anyone had been hurt. His lawyer says he’s  cooperating and “will take all necessary steps to address this situation responsibly.”  Police think Rice was driving the Corvette.

A spokesman for the Chiefs has told KCMO Radio the team will “react accordingly” after it has the facts.

(BLUES)—The St. Louis Blues are trying to put together a late-season run that will let them slip into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  But their loss to the San Jose Sharks during the weekend pushed them closer to the brink of missing them.

They bounced back last night with an overtime win in Edmonton. Brando Saad got his 25th goal of the season 2:09 into the overtime period to pull the Blues within three points of the Los Angeles Kings for the final playoff spot.  The Blues have gone 8-2-1 in their season-closing rush The Blues have seven games left.  The Kings lost to the Jets last night and have eight games left.

(BASKETBALL: BEARS)—Cuonzo Martin is back in Missouri, at Missouri State. He’s been there before. Martin last coached at the University of Missouri and was fired after two winning seasons out of five and a 78-77 record.

Martin led the Missouri State Bears for four years before leaving after the 2020-2011 season and a record of 61-41 that included the school’s only regular season Missouri Valley Conference championship. He has a five-year deal at $600,000 a year with bonuses.

(BASKETBALL: TIGERS)—Mizzou is keeping Robin Pingeton as its women’s basketball coach although then-Athletic Director Desireé Reed-Francois said Pingeton needed to get the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament to keep her job.

Reed-Francois is gone. Pingeton is back for her fifteenth season although her team finished 11-19 this year.

Pingeton is paid $400,000 a year base salary. In her fourteen seasons she has taken the Lady Tigers to the NCAA Tournament four times, the last appearance being 2019, and to the Women’s NIT six times.  She’s 236-200 in her tenure at Mizzou.

Now, the circle sports:

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has captured his second win of the season, a second in three weeks, but he has several critics who say he cheated.

NASCAR has a line at which points the leading car can accelerate toward a green flag on a restart. Numerous observers think that Hamlin sped up before getting to the line, gaining an advantage over Martin Truex, Jr., that he was able to hold to the checkered flag.

Hamlin had taken the lead coming out of the pits after the final caution flag and said after the race, “I wasn’t going to let them have an advantage that my team earned on pit road.”

Truex had led 228 of the 407 laps including 54 in a row before the final caution with two laps left.  Joey Logano and Kyle Larson slipped past him on the final laps.  Chase Elliott was fifth, just ahead of Christopher Bell who had started 29th.

(INDYCAR)—More testing has been run on the hybrid power system that INDYCAR wants to start using after the Indianapolis 500. Thirteen drivers from six teams ran 988 laps, more than 2400 miles, on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Two other teams, Penske and Andretti Global, practiced with the regular powerplants, which will be used on the road course race at the start of May.

(F1)—Formula One returns to action next weekend with the GP of Japan.

 

Heading North, Injuries, and Football is Back

Posted on by
Reply

(BASEBALL)—The Rites of Spring in Arizona and Florda are finished.  Major League Teams are heading back to real-world weather and games that count.  Here’s who will line up along the base lines in St. Louis and Kansas City at the end of this week for the first real games.

(CARDINALS)—Two key guys are on the injured list, opening up slots for a couple of other guys to be part of the first game. Center Fielder Tommy Edman and Right Fielder Lars Nootbaar won’t be available.  Manager Oliver Marmol has ended questioning about whether Dylan Carlson will be a starter by saying, “yes.”  Carlson has had a solid spring, leading the team in homers and runs batted in.  His ankle on which hehad surgery last  year has healed and he’s going to be every-day in the outfield.  Joining him in the starting outfield will be Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson, Matt Carpenter, and Brandon Crawford at various times.

Not making the big club after an impressive spring is Victor Scott II. Marmol and his coaches think he will benefit in the long term from getting a lot of playing time in Triple-A. It won’t be a surprise if we see him in The Show during the season, however. Scott batted .316 in Florida, stole four bases, and played solidly in the outfield.

For now, Michael Siani will be the fourth outfielder. He was taken from Cincinnati’s waiver list in the off-season. He hit .297 in spring training games.

Miles Mikolas will be the opening day starter with ZackThompson (in place of Sonny Gray whose hamstring needs a little more time), Lance Lynn, Steven Matz and Kyle Gibson filling out the five-man rotation.

The bullpen needs some firming up.  Keynan Middleton starts the season on the IL. But the Cardinals will have Riley O’Brien, Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, and Giovanny Gallegos available from the right-handed side with Matthew liberatore and JoJo Romero likely to handle the left-handed relief. That leaves two relief spots open with three guys in contention—John King, Ryan Fernandez, and Andre Pallante.

(ROYALS)—Royals starting pitching has hit a bump in the road just as the team was heading north.  Starter Michael Wacha, pitching his last inning of spring training ball in an intra-squad game, took a liner off his pitching hand. He was going to have X-rays on his middle finger.

Wacha signed a two-year, 32-million dollar free agent contract in the off-season and is being counted on to be an anchor in the re-structured pitching rotation.

The other big-money free agent signed during the off-season, Seth Lugo, looked ready to go in his stint in the game. He threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

Kansas City, as the Cardinals, hopes its new-look lineup turns things around from 2023.  Manager Matt Quatraro made the day Saturday for Matt Sauer, Dairon Blanco, and Nick Loftin when he told them they were on the opening-day roster. None of them have ever experienced a major league opening day.

Loftin is a utility player in the infield and the outfield. He’s 25, played nineteen games in the Bigs last year, hit .323. He’s considered the Royals’ second-ranked prospect by MLB.com.

Blanco, who is 30, impressed the team with his speed last year and his work as a defensive replacement.  He went 24 for 29 in stolen bases, hit three homers and batted .258 last year. He wants to get more than forty steals this year.

Sauer has never pitched above Double-A ball. He’ll start in the bullpen. The Royals claimed him in the Rule 5 draft from the Yankees last year. He had a good spring in Arizona, throwing in eight games and recording 13 K’s and rang up a 2.53 ERA.  He has to stay on the roster all year or the Yankees can claim him back for $50,000.

The Royals will have some people on the injured list to start the year. Second baseman Michael Massey who has had some lower back tightness issues. Relievers Carlos Hernandez’s right shoulder impingement, Jake Brentz’s left hamstring strain, and Josh Taylor’s left biceps soreness will have them on the sidelines on opening day. Wacha’s status at the time of this posting had not been determined.

Backup catcher Sandy Leon, who signed a minor league deal in January, has been released so he can shop for a slot with another club. He’s 35, a career .208 hitter who is known best for his glove work.  He was brought in as a third-stringer behind Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin. The signing of Austin Nola as another catcher crowded Leon off the roster. He hit just .118 in the CactusLeague

(XROYALS & XCARDS)—Opening day cutdowns have brought some former Cardinals and former Royals players back before the public.  Third baseman Mike Moustakas, now 35, was one of 31players to opt out of their minor league contracts at the end of spring training. Moustakas had been signed by the White Sox but hit only .195 in camp.  He was a three-time all-star for the Royals and split last year between the Rockies and the Angels, finishing with a .247 average in 386 plate appearances.

It’s a similar story for former Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, who was released by the Orioles after signing a minor league deal with them during the winter.  He’s 33 but hit just .183 for the Mariners and Dodgers last year. He was only two points better in spring training.  He has indicated he’s through if he doesn’t get a major league deal. “I don’t plan on going down to the minor leagues after this,” he told MLB.com. “Whatever happens happens.”

Wong, not known as someone reluctant to express his mind, was critical of the Orioles for sending Jackson Holliday down for the start of the year. Holliday is the son of former Cardinals standout Matt Holliday.  Wong has suggested that the demotion was a matter of baseball business with the Orioles delaying the start of young Holliday’s career long enough that they could get another year of service time from him before he qualified for free agency. Wong says the kid is “a stud” who is gonna be an incredible player.”  Holliday is 20. If the Orioles don’t call him up before May, they’ll gain the extra year of control.

(FOOTBALL)— The St. Louis Battlehawks of the new UFL open their season Saturday against the Michigan Panthers in Detroit, and the feeling in camp has been upbeat with Quarterback A. J. McCarron returning from last year when he led the now-defunct XFL in completion percentage, passing-efficiency, and touchdown passes.

Wide Receiver Marcell Ateman, who will be playing his second year with the Battlehawks, says McCarron has had a “fire camp,” and has been on the same page with all of the recievers, including two all-XFL players Hakeem Butler and Darrius Shepherd.

(NASCAR)—William Byron is the first multiple winner of 2024 in the Cup Series, leading the field home at the Circuit of Americas road course near Austin, Texas.  Byron started on the pole and led two-thirds of the laps in the race, holding off Christopher Bell at the end. His victory is the 28th on road courses for Hendrick Motorsports, a dozen more than any other team.

Bell cut Byron’s ten-second lead with ten laps left to seven-tenths of a second at the end. Sophomore driver Ty Gibbs racked up his fifth top ten finish in the six races this year. Gibbs is now in second place in the point standings and is crowing teammate Martin Truex Jr., who is ahead by only five points.

(INDYCAR)—There was a time in INDYCAR history when green cars were considered bad luck. Then guys from Formula 1 such as champions Jack Brabham and Jim Clark arrived at Indianapolis in green cars with engines behind the drivers and changed everything.

Alex Palou won a lot of green with his green car at IndyCar’s non-points Spring for the Purse event at The Thermal Club in California—$500,000 worth of it by outrunning the field in the 20-lap finale of the event.

Some teams opted to conserve their tires in the first half of the final run but Palou went full out for all twenty laps.  Colton Herta, who ran more than 90 seconds behind Palou in the first half of the segment, used his fresher tires to charge through the field to finish fourth behind Palou, Scott McLaughlin, and Felix Rosenqvist.

INDYCAR races next on April 21 at Long Beach.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen’s exit on the second lap of the Australian Grand Prix made the race Carlos Sainz’s to lose—and he didn’t. Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win an F1 race last year and is the first to do so this year.

Verstappen’s exit robbed him of a chance to tie the record set last year of winning ten Formula 1 races in a row. He dropped out because of a rear brake failure that led to him pitting with his brakes on fire, his first DNF in two years.

(photo credit: INDYCARNation screenshot)

 

SPORTS:  One Last Disappointment; The Injury List; The Journeyman Quarterbacks; Axes Fall; Tires do, too 

Posted on by
Reply

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet contributing editor

(mizz)—All year long, the Missouri Tigers have had at least one disastrous scoreless stretch  that robbed them a chance for a basketball win. One last time, they had another one.  This time they broke their fans’ hearts by waiting until the bitter end.

They had taken the lead early in the second half, not an unexpected event given the trend all year, and the held it well past the mid-point—which WAS kind of unexpected. They fought off Georgia surges and went up by seven points when Sean East II scored off a rebound to make it 59-52 with 3:39 left.

Those were the last points of the season for the Tigers.  Georgia ran off twelve unanswered points to slam the door on Missouri’s hopes.

Missouri scored just six points in the last 6:25.  They missed their last seven shots and had a turn over on an in-bounds pass that was turned into a quick Georgia basket.

The season ends 8-24 with Missouri 0-for-2024, losers of 19 straight SEC games, including the conference tournament first-round exit.

Now we wait to see how the portal changes everything.  (zou)

(AXES)—Travis Ford, briefly a Missouri Tiger before going back to Kentucky to finish his college basketball career, was fired by St. Louis University hours after the Billikens had lost to Duquesne in the second round of the Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament.

Ford’s team were 146-109 in his eight seasons. But they made it to the NCAA Tournament only once and were never seeded higher than fourth in the post-season conference tournament.. The Bills were 13-20 this year, 5-13 in the conference. He is the third-winningest coach in program history. He has been the highest-paid employee at SLU for several years at more than $2 million a year.

This might be the end of coaching for Ford, who’s been in the biz for 27 years. “The game’s been very good to me. Now it’s time to do something else,” he said after the firing.

Ford went to SLU from Oklahoma State where he also spent eight seasons before being fired.

He played a year for Norm Stewart, in 1989-90, where he made the Big 8 All-Freshman team. But he returned home to Kentucky to finish out his career with the Wildcats. His teams at five universities were 491-366.

0-0-0-0

Another Ford also has been shown the door with a winning record—but not the right kinds of wins—Dana Ford at Missouri State, in Springfield.

The Bears were 17-16 this year but only 8-12 in the Missouri Valley and were knocked out of the Arch Madness Tournament in the quarter-final round.

His six-season record at Missouri State was 106-82 with a conference recordof 64-48. His team went to the NIT once.

Missouri State was his second head coaching job. He’d done four years at Tennessee State before moving to Springfield. His overall coaching record is 163-146.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals have tamped down a little of the speculation that manager Oliver Marmol won’t last by giving him a contract extrension, This season was to be the last in his original three-year deal.  Terms haven’t been publicly announced but it’s thought his new contract is good through ’26.

The injury report is a mixed bag as opening day nears.  Pitcher Sonny Gray has thrown off the mound for the first time since leaving his first spring training game with a hamstring tweak. He reported no pain in a 20-minute bullpen session.  But Marmol says he will miss pitching on opening day. He says Gray might not require a stint on the injured list “and could potentially pitch later on the first road trip of the season.”   The new opening day pitcher will be Miles Mikolas.

The news is less good for three other guys.

Word came out Saturday that Keynan Middleton, one of the off-season pickups to bolster the bullpen, has a strained arm and will miss opening day. Middleton who can throw consistently close to triple digits, spent last year with the White Sox and Yankees.  He’s been in three games this spring, getting a couple of K’s and allowing two hits. He’s been shut down for ten days and might miss the first couple of weeks of the season.

Tommy Edmund’s rehab has been shut down for at least a week as he reported some pain in his right wrist as he took part in batting drills. If he starts the season on the IL, he could be replaced by rookie Victor Scott II, who is having a solid spring.

Lars Nootbar likewise might start the season on the injured list. Manager Oliver Marmol says he’s making progress with his injured ribs but his return to full play remains uncertain.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have named Cole Ragans as their opening day starter.  It’s just nine days away. The Royals open at home against the Twins.

Ragans had a comeback year last season, returning from his second Tommy John surgery. He pitched strongly for the Royals, showing a fastball toughing 97 mph and posting a strike rate of 10.6 per nine innings. He was the American League pitcher of the month last August when he won three out of four, rang up an ERA of 1.72 and had 56 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings. Only Dennis Leonard, in June, 1977, has had more strikeouts in one month than Ragans had.

Overall, he had a dozen starts and posted a 2.64 ERA.

0-0-0-0-0

Three new names have been added to the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame—two of them executives.

Outfielder Bo Jackson, dare we say “legendary” outfielder?—is joined by General Managers Cedric Tallis and John Schuerholz on this year’s list.

Jackson is considered the greatest two-sport athlete in pro sports history with eight years in MLB (five with the Royals) and four partial years in the NFL, not playing until baseball season was over. He was a .250 career hitter with 141 home runs (32 one year for KC) and an arm that people still talk about.  His most famous play was a one=handed grab of a ball off the left field wall, a turn and throw from the warning track that stunned everybody:

(7) KC@SEA: Bo Jackson’s cannon gets Reynolds at home – YouTube

Nobody was more surprised than Reynolds:

(7) HAROLD REYNOLDS: THE BO JACKSON THROW – YouTube

Before a hip injury ended is NFL career, he played 38 games for the Raiders, averaged 5.4 yards per rushing attempt and 73 yards-plus per game.

Tallis was the Royals’ first General Manager when they were formed as expansion team. He acquired the players who were the foundation of the Royals first great generation—Brett, Otis, Patek, Rojas, Mayberry, McRae, Wilson, Leonard, Busby, and Splittorff, among others. He also created the Royals Baseball Academy that produced Frank White and UL Washington. He died in 1991.

The Royals took Schuerholz away from Baltimore to help develop the Royals’ farm system. He took as GM in 1981 and added players such as Saberhagen, Danny and Bo Jackson, Seitzer, Appier, Montgomery and Tartabull.  He went to Atlanta in ’91 after building the team that won Kansas City’s first World Series championship in ’85, and was the architect there behind five pennants for the Braves. He was elected to Cooperstown in 2017.

(EXMIZZ)—Drew Lock has become the latest Missouri football quarterback to become a journeyman signal-caller in the NFL.  He has signed a one-year deal with the New York Giants, his third team in six seasons (three seasons in Denver, the last two in Seattle). He’s been in 28 games during that time, started 23, is 9-14 as a starting quarterback, 28 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. He has a chance to start if expected starter Daniel Jones hasn’t come back from ACL surgery last November.

He joins Blaine Gabbert as the only Tiger quarterbacks in the NFL. Gabbert has built a ten-year career, mostly as a backup after he fizzled as a starter at Tampa Bay. Gabbert has played for six teams and won his secnd Super Bowl ring this year with the Chiefs (he won his first one as Tom Brady’s backup with the Buccaneers). Gabbert has been in 69 games, 49 as a starter with a 14-35 record. 51 TDs and 50 interceptions.

The third Missouri quarterback to build a long career in the NFL as a backup was Chase Daniel, won a Super Bowl ring with the New Orleans Saints. Daniel played 74 games for for six teams and was 2-3 as a starter with nine TDs and seven interceptions. He was out of the NFL last year. (EXZOU)

(FOOTBALL)—We already know something about the way the first season of the new United Football League will finish up.

In St. Louis.

The United Football League has announced its first championship game will be played in St. Louis at the domed stadium June 16.

The announcement is a reward for St. Louis Battlehawks fans who led the league in attendance last year with more than 35,000 fans per game.  The Batlehawks came up one game short of playing in the XFL championship last year.   The XFL and the USFL merged during the offseason. The league’s first game will be March 30.

—Blessed are those who go around in circles, for they shall be called wheels—

(NASCAR)—“I’ve never run a race like that. I hope I never have to run a race like that again,” said fifth-place finisher Kyle Larson after Sunday’s race on the short track at Bristol. He wasn’t alone in those feelings because the concrete surface seemed to eat tires.

A spokesman for NASCAR, senior VP for Innovation and Racing Development had a different take. He called it “one of the best short-track races I’ve ever seen.”

The difference in perspective might be the difference between watching and driving.

The record 54th lead change of the race belonged to Denny Hamlin, who passed teammate Martin Truex Jr., in the closing laps.  Only three other drivers finished on the same lap as Hamlin and Truex, the smallest number of cars on the lead lap since Dover, twenty years ago. Sixteen drivers led at least one lap, tying a track record set in 1989.

The racing during the stages and in the final run for the checkered flag became a tire management contest as tire wear was far worse than Goodyear had predicted.  It was so severe that NASCAR decide midway into the race to give every team an additional set of tires.

The win is Hamlin’s 52nd, tying him for 13th on the wins list.

Goodyear admitted after the race that  tire wear was not up to standard.  A spokesman said the fall-off in tire wear was ‘too drastic.”  He says Goodyear will do extensive research why so many tires failed or were showing threads when changed during pit stops.

(FORMULA 1 AND INDYCAR BOTH HAD THE WEEKEND OFF.)